Bowsprit Shrouds

BOWSPRIT SHROUDS.

Bowsprit shrouds are now invariably made of wire rope, and have a thimble eye-splice in each end; one end is shackled to the iron crane at the bowsprit end, the other to the setting-up tackle. This tackle formerly was always outboard, hooked to an eye-bolt on the top strake, where it not only dragged through the water and picked up weeds, but was not so readily got at when reefing the bowsprit. The tackle consists of an iron fiddle block and a single block, the latter being at the after end of the tackle. (See Fig. 29, page 118.) An eye bolt is fitted in the deck to take the tackle. This bolt should go through a beam, and have a plate and spur on deck ; the strake of deck plank where the bolt is should be of hard wood, and the bolt should be a very strong one. Several vessels have lost their bowsprits through this bolt drawing, crushing through the plank, or breaking off short. Notable instances

occurred in the match for the Queen's Cup at Cowes in 1874, when the Morns schooner and Kriemhilda cutter lost their bowsprits. Oddly enough, the Kriemhilda lost her bowsprit at Torquay the year before from the same cause, and so did Iona, and numberless other cases have occurred. Hatcher fits a band, with an eye in it, round one of the stanchions, for the shroud tackle block, and this appears to be a good plan. Another fruitful cause of mishap to bowsprits has been the practice of having an iron shoe instead of a thimble eyesplice in the shroud for the shackle. Even when the shoe is a long one, it will occasionally strip in consequence of the wire parting where the rivets go through, and a shoe should never be trusted for any part of the wile standing rigging.